Elite runners start the first wave of Bay to Breakers 2018San Francisco Chronicle

Coyote trots around Golden Gate parkTed Andersen, SFGATE

"We definitely intend to retry this case," said U.S. Attorney Michael Yamaguchi. He declined further comment on the case because it was still pending.

Chow, 36, was alleged to be a leader of a criminal offshoot of the Hop Sing Tong, a legitimate Chinatown business and social group.

The gang was involved in narcotics, prostitution, extortion and contract murder, according to the Justice Department's Organized Crime Strike Force in San Francisco.

Federal authorities also said Chow was right-hand man to fugitive Peter Chong. Chong is the reputed head of the Wo Hop To, identified by a U.S. Senate committee as San Francisco's most powerful Asian crime gang.

Chow was convicted in 1995 on federal weapons charges and remains in federal custody.

The original 103-page indictment against Chow was filed in October 1993 and accused Chow and others of joining forces to "create and solidify an international criminal organization" that used teenagers and young men to do their criminal legwork.

At the time, federal authorities said Chinatown crime bosses in San Francisco had linked with those in other major cities to form criminal syndicates based on the model of Hong Kong's powerful triads.

The indictment was the first West Coast racketeering indictment against an Asian crime group. Similar racketeering charges have been used successfully against Italian Mafia families on the East Coast and elsewhere.&lt;